1. Field of the invention
This invention relates to the field of automated robots used in a variety of applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Robotic arms are now being used as standard components of assembly lines because of their numerous advantages. These advantages when compared to their human counterparts may include: greater precision, faster speed, more reliability, less down time, less damage and/or loss in case of an accident, and less cost over the long term.
Despite these advantages, they also possess disadvantages which make them difficult to apply in an industrial setting. These include, but are not limited to (1) the general size of drive mechanisms (motors, pneumatics, hydraulics, etc.), (2) the complexity in controls, (3) the mechanical stability of the design in general, (4) the inertia which needs to be accelerated and decelerated, (5) the range of motion that is desired from the robot, (6) the accuracy in placement of components or the end manipulator, and so on. Added complexity implies increases in costs as well as other factors.
By creating specific optimised designs and realisations of robots, they can be useful in a variety of applications without much modification to the design. However, the robots then become too sophisticated and too expensive for many other applications, since the robots will have many features which are not necessary for the desired applications. It is difficult to realize a simple design which has good versatility and which addresses the above disadvantages.
There are a number of patented inventions which have attempted to deal with some of these problems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 32,414 by Hutchins et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,334 by Tanita et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,265,490 by Azuma et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,736 by Azuma et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,324,163 by Costa all show the use of belts for transferring power and movement so that the motors may remain stationary relative to the moving parts of the robot. However, there still remains a need for a robot which has minimal moving mass, a high placement accuracy, a high repeatability, simple controllers, and which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.